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Monday, 19th December

One of the first things a busy person thinks when they feel hunger pangs is “where can i find food that comes fast and is cheap”, especially in the current economic climate!!

If you are working and in the middle of a town or city, you are likely to be bombarded with fast food offers, with no shortage of places to choose. The problem is that most of the choices are going to loaded with saturated fat, sugar and salt, exactly what you don’t want when you’re trying to get in shape!!

As i said, its going to be cheap and fast so the problem is solved straight away? Not really because these habits if practiced enough will bring health problems like you never imagined!

Absolutely nothing wrong with grabbing fast food once a week, a burger here or a slice of pizza there, but when it  becomes an everyday occurrence, its then your health is likely to suffer from issues around obesity. With obesity rising still in this country very quickly (most of the uk’s population is already classed as overweight) , the chances will be that these fast food places will be full of busy people looking to get a quick fix just to fill up on empty calories.

The chances are that most if not all people in that store will know that the food they are eating is not going to be good for them. Unfortunately, its not until their health suffers that they do something about it, and that is sometimes too late. Putting off eating healthy until tomorrow has a familiar ring to it for all of us at some stage in our lives.

Heart disease and diabetes for starters, follow that with terribly low energy levels and bad digestion and you have a nasty combination of health issues that are really going to spoil your quality of life.

The good news is that it really doesn’t have to be this way at all, there is ANOTHER way and i’m here to help. Just as destructive a lifestyle this can be with fast food in your life every day, the opposite can be achieved with some small changes made in your everyday life, plus you will SAVE money!!! After all, all of that fast food was never that cheap in the first place was it? And did it ever really satisfy you?

My ideas to change your eating and life around start tomorrow on here, so see you then!!

In the meantime, click on the diet section on the right hand side for plenty of ideas to get you into all of this.

Twitt
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Thursday, 8th December

The positive nature of the workout information this week is great but what allows it to happen is you being consistent, simple as that!

If you’re not eating well week in week out for a long period of time, then you are not likely to be up for these advanced workouts.

If you havent got some good training experience behind you, and you miss a week here, week there on your training, you are going to be unlikely to cope with the pace of these workouts.

If you drink alcohol more than once a week, you are going to struggle with these workouts, if you drink 3 or more times a week, you have no chance of coping with these workouts.

If you dont show responsibility by getting to bed early most nights, then you will struggle to recover and have the energy to train like this!!

Okay, glad we have got this out the way!!!

So i’d imagine you are focused by now, lets talk some more training!

So assuming you have managed to get used to training with very little breaks, and you are considerably fitter, lets move on!

Assuming you have been using lighter weights and easier exercises because of the fast paced workouts, its time to make the weights a little heavier, and make the choice of exercises a little harder.

Like the way you arrived at this stage in the first place, its a natural progression as long as you are doing the things outside the workout that we talked about at the start of this piece?

I cannot stresss enough that you shouldnt be doing these workouts unless you are advanced exerciser  and worked yourself up to this level!!!

So doing a press up will be easier than a ligh pec deck, a lunge or squat will be harder than moving your legs up and down when

on your side, a pull up on a chinning bar will be far harder than a light lat pullown.

So its down to what you can substitute your “easier” exercises for, so your workout becomes harder again!

More of this tomorrow!

Twitt
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Thursday, 8th December

As we talk about interval training, the next step up from that is non-stop training!!!

I should point out that this is not for the beginner who has just started training by any means, more for someone who has already been training for a while, and has achieved a good standard of fitness.

For example, if you started off doing a circuit such as this for 10 reps per exercise-

Press ups

arm dips

squats

sit ups

squat thrusts

So after you do this exercise, that would be it for most people, they would then rest, and wait to get their breath back before moving on with another circuit.

Those people who have followed this type of circuit will know that after a while, you will  not need the rest after the first circuit, and you will be able to move on to the next circuit straight away. Its at that point you may need a rest!

Then after a bit more experience, you may be able to move on to the third circuit even with no rest. This is when your fitness levels could be considered excelllent.

Then what after that?

If you are fit and conditioned enough, then you could start aiming to piece most workouts together as non-stop workouts, stopping very rarely indeed, only making sure you stop for sips of water, which are ultra-important and help cool your body down when doing a lot of high intensity training.

Most people  i know who have got to this stage, rarely want to train another way unless they have had a break from training for a few weeks, which will take quite a bit of time to get used to again of course.

If you train in more of a non-stop manner, however long that maybe (and its usually for 30 mins or less), you will burn more fat, gain more endurance, and generally be in the shape of your life!!!

Twitt
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Tuesday, 6th December

Following on from yesterday’s example on interval training, you soon will be convinced that this is the way to go. All the best sessions are forms of intervals when you think about it?

I have one client who is doing the moonwalk event in London next year, and is helping her friend to get through it too.

The problem has suddenly appeared with the friend of the person i train. She has run into shin splints, and can barely do much training at all, it also doesnt help she is around 4 stone overweight, which is compounding the problem of course.

Rather than keep on the same training methods they started, which consisted of lots and lots of walking on the flat, which always resulted in pain for the shins, i recommended working on hill sprints, and hill walking.

This has now transformed the situation from one of desperation to one of hope and big achievement next year!

Due to the severe nature of the hill, the sprints are making both of them work hard and really get out breath. Getting out of breath never really happened on the flat, therefore both of them are getting fitter and because you don’t need to spend as much time training, the shin splints injury is subsiding and the boredom has disappeared.

Any time you do interval training, you work hard for a short time, then you get a short rest, then work hard again  and so on until you cant  do much more.

This, as i said, can be applied to any form of training, whether its weights, cycling, running or even walking.

Lets face it, nobody can go 90-100% for long, so its important to have small breaks, and this will allow your body to go further and therefore get far better results than if you employed the boring, low intensity sessions that seem to last for hourse!!!

Interval and high intensity training gives you focus and much needed results every time if done correctly, try it sometime!!!

Twitt
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Friday, 2nd December

Finishing off a week should always be a celebration, and a big one for us tonight with a big gym christmas night out!

Its time of the year to celebrate with all the christmas festivities and get in the mood for christmas!

Its important to recognise those people who have trained hard all year long, have shown up in cold, rain and all of those times when a lot of people seem to throw in the towel.

Most people who train hard all year will also realise the importance of going for a run, cycle or long walk tomorrow morning after a few beers and a big meal!!!

Most hard trainers will realise the folly of staying in bed all morning after a big night nursing a hangover!

The best way to get over a hangover is to make sure your last drink is a pint of water, dehydration will cause much of your hangover so this is an excellent strategy!

Then the following morning, get your kit on straight away around 7am or earlier and get out there and exercise!!!!! I mean as simple as that too!!!!

These tactics will clear your head completely-after around 5-10 minutes of pain first of all with all the booze and sugar working its way out of your body!!! Then after ten minutes, you will even begin to enjoy your workout and its all downhill from there!!

You should even begin to ENJOY your workout from there and i usually feel like doing a bit more than i had originally planned, and i hear a lot of other people saying the same thing who have got up and used this ultimate hangover cure!!!

You get back to feeling yourself straight away when you get back in for a shower and a good breakfast!!!!

So good luck to everyone who is out on a big night out tonight and remember saturday morning can be used as the perfect cure to your headache!!!!

Twitt